I'm wanting a new receiver, help me decide

I have a Pio 5070, PS3, Toshiba A2 and Dish Network cable and Emotiva LPA-1.

Here are the contenders:

Onkyo 705 & 805 Yamaha RXV 683 & their soon to be released RXV863. I considered the Yamaha 3800, but I don't want to spend that much even though I could get it for $1100 shipped from an autorized dealer.

I am a little concerned aobut Onkyo's from what I have read with the 705 humming issues, and 805 overheating and lip synch issues. Power is not an issue since I have an amp.

The Outlaw does not have the latest audio formats does it?? Maybe it does now, but I know a few weeks ago they did not.

Of the two Receivers you are looking at I would opt for the Onkyo based on the fact that it should sound better than the Yamaha. The new line from NAD has the new Audio formats but may be out of the price range a bit, as they are more expensive than their previous offerings.

The Outlaw sounds better than both Onkyo and Yamaha IMO but I don't think Outlaw has the new HD audio formats yet. Also, I have not actually heard the new Onkyo stuff, but hear from friends who are dealers of it that it is much better than their last set of A/V receivers.

I think so Trevor, the guys I talk to, and im sure Frank can agree all say they never have that many problems with them. The Onkyo line have to be one of the most sold A/V's right now so to have a few more RMA's than less selling companies is going to be somewhat normal.

David- Totally awesome, uncompress audio all the way man. I have got to a point where I can't stand to see a Blu-Ray movie just come with the typical DD or DTS.lol

­"Pretty sure you're correct Nick - the Outlaws don't support TrueHD or DTS-HD (yet). However, some HD-DVD/BD players have TrueHD/DTS-HD audio outs that you could connect to the Outlaw."

Both the Outlaw pre/pros (and the Outlaw receiver) support DVI only. They will not internally decode the lossless audio codecs, including the intermediate DD+ and DTS-HD. Since DVI is video only, there's no way to feed those bitstreams into the Outlaws. They do have 7.1 analog inputs, but since Trevor's A2 doesn't have any multi channel analog outputs, that won't work.

Regarding BD players, one shouldn't make assumptions. Even though most BD players have multi channel analog outs, not all players will internally convert the lossless codecs and output them via their analog outputs. (One quick look at this grid shows why the Panasonic DMP-BD50 is on my short list, since I am not going to buy a new HDMI receiver anytime soon.)

It does seem a shame to leave the Emotiva LPA-1 in the dust in favor of some mid-line receiver, even if it is a certified HDMI 1.3a device. To my knowledge, on the other hand, 1.3 pre/pros are rare and expensive. So why not use something like the Onkyo 705 as a pre/pro? It has the necessary 7.1 pre-outs that could be fed into the Emotiva..... ­

I was talking to the Audiolab rep recently and he said something VERY interesting. We were discussing Blu-ray and the uncompressed / Dolby trueHD / DTS Master Audio codecs. He was saying that they could not understand why people insisted on having Master Audio and true HD in the AV receiver. Apparently when a Blu-ray player is told to send the stream down to the AV receiver it has to unpack the TrueHD/Master Audio stream into uncompressed PCM and then REPACK it to send to the receiver to unpack it again.

Since the unpacked uncompressed PCM is exactly the same, you might as well just send uncompressed PCM to the receiver since the player has to unpack it in the first place.

Now if it was anyone else, I'd probably have dismissed this odd state of affairs as a flight of fancy, but Barry is one bright cookie and knows his stuff (ex TAG McLaren when they were the bees knees).

Frank-My dealer said something similar to that. Just a statement he made to me once on how the whole Dolby and DTS High Def audio formats, and how nothing can get better than the original source recorded in full Uncompressed PCM. No digital repacking, or nothing. He said the fact that DD and DTS claim that they take the original source, that is recorded in its ultimated quality, and then make it better??lol If the original source is Uncompressed(best the original source can possibly be) than how is it made better? I say Marketing scheme. Just like Video Upconverting. I think the statement your friend Barry made is absolutely dead on.

How does PCM work? I know absolutely nothing about this. I assume that the source PCM is an audio track on the DVD? If uncompressed PCM is sent to receiver, does the receiver know how to decode it (for lack of a better word)?

The receiver would have to be able to accept multi-channel uncompressed PCM. Not all receivers can do this, but some who do not necessarily wish to pay the licenses for DTS Master Audio or TrueHD can do so.

Thats what I am doing now David. Your receiver needs to have 5.1/7.1 channel External RCA inputs on the back, or HDMI. I think yours does have the RCA inputs, but not sure. And of course the blu-ray player has to have the 5.1/7.1 ch Enternal Outputs or HDMI out on the back as well.

The HDMI on the A/V receiver has to be capable of decoding the HD audio format into PCM. A lot of the higher end Audio companies A/V receivers don't do the HD audio formats yet, because they realize why Repack it as Frank says, instead of just playing it as straight through PCM instead. Which is as good as its going to get.